On 25 July 2000, a Concorde plane crashed shortly after take-off from Paris airport. All 109 on board lost their lives. Four people on the ground were also killed when the plane crashed into a hotel. It was the beginning of the end for a 30-year long adventure of supersonic airliners. Passengers began to defect to the plane after the accident. At the same time, no one was making new planes, and the Concorde fleet was slowing down. Two years later – in 2003 – both Air France and British Airways had their last flights. Since then, all the Concorde planes have been grounded. Second test flight More than 20 years after Concorde was put on the ground for good, a new passenger plane that flies faster than sound is underway. Boom Supersonics, as the plane is called, made its second test flight last week. The test took place over the Mojave Desert in California. The plane reached a speed of 446 km/h and was in the air for 15 minutes. This time it was landing Christmas that was tried out. Next time – as planned later this year – the plane will fly faster than sound for the first time. What is being tested now is a smaller version of the supersonic aircraft. The test version, which is called the Boom Supersonic XB-1, is a third the size of the plane that is supposed to carry passengers. A 2021 artist drawing of Boom Supersonic with United logo. Illustration: AFP Will be expensive As early as 2029, the manufacturers want the plane to go into normal passenger traffic, writes Politico. According to the manufacturer itself, United Airlines has ordered 15 aircraft and has an option for a further 35. American Airlines has also ordered aircraft. With a speed of 1.7 times the speed of sound – around 2,100 km/h – the new plane will take 3.5 hours between London and New York. That is less than half of today’s flight time with normal planes. United says the price should be the same as today’s business class price. Today, London – New York costs around 10,000 dollars. There is over NOK 100,000 in United’s business class. The Swedish aviation analyst Jan Ohlsson is very skeptical of the price estimate. – The fuel is five times as expensive, and they say that they should offer business class prices. It doesn’t add up, he says to SVT. More than 20 years after the last flight, Concorde has ended up in a museum. On March 14 this year, a Concorde aircraft was transported on a raft to the aircraft carrier Intrepid, which today serves as an aviation museum in New York. Photo: Reuters – Missed completely Aviation accounts for around 2.5 per cent of the world’s total CO₂ emissions, say figures from Our World in Data. Aviation’s contribution to global warming is nevertheless higher. Because the emissions take place high up in the atmosphere, they are more harmful. It is therefore common to multiply by 1.8 to bring out the climate effect of emissions from aviation. The new supersonic plane will use far more fuel than a normal plane. The manufacturers say that it should only use biofuel and thus be sustainable. Leader of the Nature Conservation Association, Truls Gulowsen. Photo: Henning Rønhovde The leader of the Nature Conservancy, Truls Gulowsen, rejects the claim of sustainability. The world’s access to sustainable biofuels is limited. There is not enough biofuel to replace what is currently burned in fossil-fuelled engines, he says. He believes that the small amount of bioenergy that is produced must be used extremely smartly, in the same way as renewable energy. – The development of technology that uses five times as much fuel as today shows that they have missed the mark completely. That this can be marketed as green shows how little of the climate challenges have been understood, says Gulowsen. CO₂ in the atmosphere measured in parts per million particles (ppm)460 parts per million particles (ppm)? Click for an explanation of parts per million, abbreviated ppmGo to news’s Climate Status Why is the graph so wavy? This is about seasons. In summer, the amount of CO₂ decreases because plants and trees absorb CO₂ from the air. In winter, the plants die, the CO₂ escapes and the graph rises. Since there are more plants and trees in the northern hemisphere, the seasons here control the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. What is the problem with a lot of CO₂ in the atmosphere? The greenhouse effect makes the earth livable, but more greenhouse gases, such as CO₂, increase this effect and make the earth warmer . The graph starts in 1960 because this was the year when the world began to measure CO₂ systematically. It happened on Mauna Loa in Hawaii and the curve shows the measurements from there. Before the world became industrialized there was around 280 ppm CO₂ in the atmosphere (year 1700). The researchers found that out by analyzing ice core samples. Will there be less CO₂ in the atmosphere if emissions are cut? No, not immediately. If we cut emissions, the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere will only increase more slowly. The reduction in emissions must be large and last for a long time before we can see an effect. Imagine that the atmosphere is a bathtub and the greenhouse gases are the water you fill in. Even if you turn off the tap, the bathtub will not run out of water. This is the case with greenhouse gases and CO₂. It takes a long time for CO₂ to break down in the atmosphere. This is the reason why the experts want technology that sucks out greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, in addition to us cutting emissions. The world’s politicians have decided that they will try to limit the warming of the world to 1.5 degrees, compared to how the temperature was before the industrial revolution. Then we must keep the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere below 430 ppm, according to the UN’s climate panel. Published 06.09.2024, at 11.24
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Successful test for new supersonic passenger plane – news – Klima
